This site is about myself and my dogs, and about close friends and their dogs... We revel in their closeness, and the friendship, and undying loyalty they provide us....

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Kipling on Life..

Here's a great piece of verse from the British novelist, poet, journalist and writer of short stories, Rudyard Kipling. Born in Bombay, India in 1865, Kipling left a wealth of classics such as The Jungle Book, Kim, Gunga Din, and todays post If, before his death in London in 1936. I memorized this poem for school one year... If I'd known school would do me so much good, I would have paid more attention instead of daydreaming out the window...

'If' by Rudyard Kipling..

If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you,If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,But make allowance for their doubting too;If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,Or being hated, don't give way to hating,And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same;If you can bear to hear the truth you've spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winningsAnd risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginningsAnd never breath a word about your loss;If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,If all men count with you, but none too much;If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds' worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

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